Man, what is going on with these priests molesting and raping these kids?! There's, what, two now, recently?
Tonight the news had a very small piece about the fact that people want the laws changed about the clergy. They want it so that the church must report any accusations against a clergy member for sexual abuse of a child.
I can see the side some take on this about the seperation of church and state. But it's really a weak argument.
Basically, this has nothing to do with government butting into religion or vice versa. What it does deal with is children being sexually abused, no matter where or by who. It does the same amount of damage whether the kid is molested by the shoe rental guy at the bowling alley or by the priest of your parish.
People see these clergy people as higher up in a spiritual way. We all know they are just human. But followers of the religion trust these clergy members with everything. It's like, they can do no wrong, and it's shocking when they actually do.
I spent 12 years in catholic schools. There was two cases of "authority figures" being found out as alcoholics. One was a teacher in high school. She never drank on the job, but admitted to being an alcoholic none the less. While this was shocking to people who thought they really knew her, it was nothing like the priest at my grade school who admitted to be a recovering alcoholic. They kept his problems hidden, but we all got really curious when we noticed we got wine with other priests during school services and grape juice with him. After enough questioning, he came clean. And it shocked the entire parish. People started talking about the fact that he was no longer trust worthy and all this stuff. It really created an uproar.
Thankfully, none of the priests ever molested a child...that we know of, anyway. But I think the church should be made to report cases of priests molesting children.
People deserve to know who they are trusting their children with. That white collar automatically makes many people trust priests more. And no one really thinks that a priest would molest their child.
But by hiding it, also, it effects other kids. The priest gets busted, and what happens? No action is taken by the law because they don't have to report it. They just transfer him. Where he starts with a clean slate and a new batch of kids. He always remains out there hurting these kids, state to state, parish to parish, while non-clergy pedophiles are dealt with.
So, to make a long ramble short, I think the church should be made to report these complaints and investigate them. I also think it wouldn't hurt to teach kids at a young age what is ok and not ok for people to do to them, and what to do if someone "touches" them. Some of them don't know what is going on after all, and they need to be told. They also need to be told that these things are either ok or not no matter what gender the person doing them is. It's only fair, and helps to keep kids safer, not just kids who are around clergy members...there is a lot of pedophiles out there, and most of them aren't clergy.
Written: 3/8/2002
Previous Comments:
I say that any parent stupid enough to let their kids spend time in a Catholic Church, knowing full well what goes on behind closed doors, should be the one put behind bars when their kid is raped. [ZombyWoof]
